Suspect’s Mother Reacts to Deadly Shooting in Allen County

Allen County, KY (WNKY-TV) – A domestic violence situation in Allen County turns deadly Monday night, leaving a young baby with out a mother and a father in jail.

"And he just snapped. He was crazy," says April Riley, Ethan Reid’s mother.

On Sunday, 20-year-old Kaylah Hodges, her young baby and April Riley had just come back to their home on the 300 block of Huff Road after vacationing in Florida. While relaxing around 5:30 Monday night, the father of Hodges baby and Riley’s son, 23-year-old Ethan Reid showed up with a gun. 

"She just yelled ‘oh my God, Ethan’s here with a gun.’ She yelled for me and grabbed the baby and ran to me and I got in between them and tried to hold him off," says Riley.

Riley says she was shoved out the door by her son while holding the child, when she got up she called 9-1-1, but it was already too late.

"He took off after her and I heard a pop and when I got to the edge of the hallway she was falling out the front door, he killed her. Shot her in the back like a coward," says Riley.

Hodges was pronounced dead at the hospital from a single shot to the back. Reid was held down by a neighbor at the scene until police arrived and arrested later for Hodges murder. Riley tells us the relationship was toxic, and less than a half hour before the shooting, Reid posted a message on facebook. Stating things like ‘I’m not truly this bad of a person. I’ve been pushed to this point overtime.’ and ‘Just know this was never my intention.’

Riley says it’s a tragedy, the world lost a wonderful person and now Kaylah’s little girl has to grow up without her mother.

"She was amazing. She was an amazing mother, so sweet and bubbly. I’m just heartbroken," says Reid.

Reid is being held in the Allen County Detention Center. Neither a court date nor a bond amount have been set.